Alaska Air Group is continuing with its aggressive expansion out of its Seattle Tacoma International Airport base and will be adding at least five new markets a year, CFO Brandon Pedersen told investors and analysts May 17 at the Merrill Lynch Global Transportation Conference. The airline plans to add a net of five new aircraft to its fleet every year for the next three years, with each representing a new market for the carrier.
Click here to view the pdf Fuel Watch: Global Jet Fuel Prices (midpoint) As of May 16, 2012• compared with previous week and previous year cts/gal prev. week prev.
Southwest Airlines is phasing out its Boeing 737 Classic aircraft by about 2017 and is finding ways to use engine inventory from that fleet to decrease its maintenance costs. Mandy Gower, Southwest Airlines’ powerplant supply chain manager, tells Aviation Week that the airline employed MTU Canada and BP Aerospace in Irvine, Calif., to tear down its CFM International CFM56-3s that power the Classics. The airline just took the next step and selected Avioserv San Diego to consign the material.
The Independent Pilots Association (IPA), which represents UPS crew members, and the Coalition of Airline Pilots Associations (CAPA) say they have 25 co-sponsors for H.R.4350, a bill that attempts to compel cargo carrier inclusion in a new rule that currently addresses rest rules for only commercial pilots. With this total, the pilot groups now have a quarter of the co-sponsors they say are needed to persuade House Transportation Committee Chairman John Mica, (R-Fla.), to reverse his current stance backing the new rest rules before Congress’s July 4 recess.
Airbus is taking a €158 million ($201 million) charge linked to the costs associated with wing component cracking on its A380s and expects more costs to come. The latest charge covers repairs on 71 aircraft already delivered and adds to a €105 million charge taken in March because of the same problem. Moreover, Airbus CFO Harald Wilhelm says additional costs are due this year to cover the expense of repairing about 30 A380s being delivered this year. That could bring the bill to €260 million for 2012, he says.
A damning report by the U.S. Transportation Department’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) calls into question the Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority’s (MWAA) policies on contracting and the ethics of its board of directors.
General Electric (GE) has increased the 2020 revenue target for its business and general aviation engine segment because of strong order bookings. The company had set a target of reaching $1 billion in revenue by 2020, but with business already booked, the company knows it will surpass that level, Brad Mottier, VP and general manager of GE Aviation business and general aviation, said during EBACE 2012. A new target has now been set, he added, without disclosing the new level.
With a global pilot shortage looming, CAE has boosted its airline training capacity with the acquisition of the flight school, type rating and crew sourcing businesses of Oxford Aviation Academy (OAA). The C$314 million ($312 million) acquisition, already completed, expands CAE’s ab initio flight school and simulator-based training networks and adds pilot and maintenance crew-sourcing services through OAA’s Parc Aviation subsidiary.
Indonesian authorities have begun the process of extracting information from the cockpit voice recorder of the Superjet 100 that crashed during a demonstration flight on May 9, killing all 45 people on board. The search for the flight data recorder at the crash site on Mt. Salak continues.
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As first reported by Aviation Week in early April, Republic Airlines has reached a tentative agreement to operate Bombardier Q400 aircraft for United Airlines, picking up the business that is being dropped by Pinnacle Airlines’ Colgan Air subsidiary, although Republic says the accord will not be finalized until it reaches unspecified contracts with aircraft lessors and maintenance providers that are expected to lower the costs of an operation that was a money-loser for Colgan.
Honeywell expects certification authorities to sign off on several of its in-development cockpit upgrades before the year-end, including programs for the Falcon 7X and Falcon 2000 EASy II avionics upgrade Honeywell is conducting with Dassault Aviation.
Gulfstream Aerospace expects to receive FAA type certification for the large-cabin G650 and super mid-size G280 in the third quarter with customer deliveries planned shortly after, the airframer said during the 12th annual European Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition in Geneva. The two aircraft are “neck and neck,” so it is not clear which will be certified first, says Gulfstream President Larry Flynn. European Aviation Safety Agency certification is due by the year-end.
Click here to view the pdf Top Carriers - Dubai, May 15-21, 2012, Ranked By Scheduled Outbound ASMs Top Carriers - Dubai, May 15-21, 2012, Ranked By Scheduled Outbound ASMs Departures
Air Lease Corp. (ALC) expects to lease the new Airbus A320NEO and A321NEO aircraft for 12-16% more than the equivalent current-model aircraft, and says the higher rate will improve the company’s margin on those types by least 10%.
Embraer is optimistic the positive developments within business aviation could lead to a broader sales momentum for the Brazilian manufacturer. “April was a very good month for us,” says Embraer CEO Frederico Fleury Curado at the 12th annual European Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition in Geneva. The question now is whether that can be sustained.
LAN Airlines has given a clearer indication that its proposed merger with Grupo TAM will close by July, although the company has not released a formal date for the merger’s completion. The Chilean carrier’s CFO, Alejandro de la Fuente Goic, during the carrier’s first-quarter results conference call told analysts the company expects to generate as much as $200 million in synergies in the first 12 months of the merger, although the gains will be realized in the second six months of that year.
A request by maintenance provider Standard Aero to immediately cease its engine support agreement for Pinnacle Airlines’ Bombardier CRJ200 aircraft would be “operationally devastating,” will ground several aircraft and could jeopardize the carrier’s Chapter 11 reorganization, the regional carrier says.
